The Endless Solvent

Aris dreamed of plunging her hand into unnaturally white, smooth flesh. Blood red gash of a mouth snarls at her, long white teeth come out of gums like spikes and seem to unfurl out to attack. The trilling sound fills her skull as she grips something warm, wet and squishy inside the Unseeing.

Close your eyes, little moon.

The Unseeing she had triumphantly under her killing grip turned into Nilda. Dead eyes stared at her. Her chest squeezed as if her heart would explode and Aris shot up from her nest of blankets with sweat pouring down her face. She shakily found the water skin by her ‘bed’ and drank the tepid water to try to calm herself. For a few moments she laid back down, trembling and convincing herself not to slip back into Shade form until she felt better.

Gradually, she stretched until her limbs felt less stiff from being locked up in the nightmare. She could hear the faint chirp of birds through the stone blocks that lined the upper part of her room. It was probably nearing sunrise. When she felt well enough, Aris finally turned into her shadowy form with an exhale, then passed through the dirt and rock walls. She climbed upwards, almost mimicking the actions because she couldn’t quite make contact with the solid ground beneath and around her; the cool earth passed through her form.

When she arrived on the other side, the morning’s cool air passed right through her. She stood as a ghost for longer than necessary, enjoying the feeling of being in that form more than she was willing to admit. Solute Obsession Syndrome was a well documented phenomenon that commonly happened in those with Inner Eye abilities. Camaz hated talking about it.

Aris didn’t think she would succumb to it since her ability to turn into Shade form was acquired, however she found herself less and less willing to return to her corporeal form every time she used her ability. It was like scratching an itch and being unable to stop scratching it.

Her excuse for using it every morning was because her room had no entrance. She purposely made her hideaway that way so she would never have unexpected visitors. There previously stood a house with a deep cellar, but now the house is gone and replaced with overgrowth and the faint smell of mold. Aris found the cellar in reasonable conditions and simply sealed it up the best she could. She was the only one who would be able to access since she’s the only one she knows who’s able to pass through walls.

Although the people of the nearby village, Gendis, were not exactly Academy elites or educated in anything other than logging and farming. She could probably just scrawl down some illusion runes and call it a day, but she would rather not take any chances. Gendis was peaceful when she arrived a year ago, but only recently did a Gate open about two day’s ride west at a nearby village called Reikna.

Aris used the excuse of having to climb a tree as reason to stay in Shade form for just a little longer. It was easier for her to move vertically as it made her weight nothing at all and she could nearly float up to the upper branches. However she discovered that she couldn’t ‘fly’ - if she tried to jump off from a great height in Shade form, she would quickly re-materialize before painfully hitting the ground. There were many limitations to the abilities she’s stolen from the Shade she killed.

It was only fair: she wasn’t a Shade so she wouldn’t fully behave like a shade.

When she made it to the sturdy branches, she made herself solidify again. Aris leaned back against the tree trunk and watched the sun over the top of the Verdant Forests. Back in Caelis castle, their viewing platform faced south but their easternmost view allowed them to see just beyond the Yscian lands in that direction. She faintly remembered there was a swell of land beyond the dense forests then the smooth horizon of a distant ocean much further east on the other side of the continent. The tree she sat on wasn’t tall enough to see all that, even if it was quite tall and grew close to the top of a hill. She could, however, clearly see most of the village of Gendis northeast of the tree from her spot.

If Caelis still existed, Gendis would be within the kingdom’s borders. The people living there would call her Lunaris and treat her like a queen. But now, the few that know of her presence call her a witch and even fewer still were willing to approach her. The Kuvanians weren’t there but their influence was plain to see. The idea that the use of runes or solvent manipulation being the cause of the Gate crisis was common in Gendis and all the surrounding villages and towns. Back at the Academy, such a ‘theory’ was all but summarily dismissed as religious hogwash pushed by Kuvanians or Sekrelli but the further east she went on the continent, the more common the belief was.

The little village woke up to the first rays of light leaching into the sky. Chimneys put out smoke as fires lit to cook breakfast. A farmer strapped a wooden plough to a work bull and began tilling his land. Women went out to tidy their yard or to prepare to do laundry. Children then spilled out, rambunctious and noisy as they chased each other for some unknown game. Every one of them wore brown or yellow clothing.

Aris grew up wearing blue dresses. It was the color of the Lunaris and part of the symbol of the Caelis royal family. She understood aristocracy at the Heart only wore warm colors (this was something her mother always talked about but she never really believed it), but it seemed more like a fashion choice than anything else. Nobody cared what colors people wore on the Academy island. If anything, black was the common theme as all the administrators and professors wore black. Students wanted to emulate the colors of their teachers.

But here, Aris knew the clothing wasn’t a fashion choice or a status symbol. The people weren’t allowed to wear cool colors. They had to appear as Gaian as possible. She didn’t remember Caelis being this way. Noblemen and commoners alike used to wear any color they wished, including blues and greens.

When the sun climbed high enough in the sky, Aris reacted by climbing down her tree and headed deeper into the forest, far from her hidden house. There was a small clearing open to the sunlight where a dense bed of blue flowers grew. They were tiny flowers barely the size of a fingernail but a carpet of them increased the intensity of their color. She had no idea what the flower was called. A boulder stood at the north end of the clearing and Aris sat on it and waited.

A few moments later, she could hear people approaching. They tried to stay silent but Aris was accustomed to picking up the sounds of sticks and leaves under foot. As usual, Jorra appeared first and her brother Morton hovered behind her on the trail. He would stay out there during the whole interaction, standing slightly out of sight behind a tree while gripping his bow as if to be menacing.

Jorra stepped into the clearing while bowing slightly to Aris. Her brown eyes drifted down to the bed of blue flowers, a look of uncertainty crossing her face. She did this every time they met here. It was as if the bed of flowers was actually a pool of lava she had to avoid. Jorra made great pains not to step too close to the flowers and always walked the long way around it to approach Aris on her boulder.

The bag Jorra had slung on her back was set down heavily next to the boulder. “I brought you the clothing you needed,” Jorra said. “Along with two day’s worth of food.”

Aris nodded. “And?” She didn’t move to take the bag.

“Uncle Hal says a Gate may have opened over in Tunni. That’s west of here,” Jorra said. “They’re not certain but Uncle’s associate there hasn’t sent a messenger for over a month. And a traveling merchant’s been telling people to avoid that area.”

Jorra’s ‘Uncle Hal’ was a veteran hunter in Gendis. He frequently roamed the areas around the village for game and was usually the first to hear about any news from neighboring villages.

“How far away is Tunnk from the last one in Reikna?” Aris asked.

“About a day’s ride. It’s further from here than the last one.”

A day’s ride’s difference isn’t that much. Aris didn’t say this to the woman.

“Madam…” Jorra looked uncertainly up at her with wide brown eyes. Aris found it amusing Jorra called her that because she was sure the woman was a year or two older, her brother at least five years older. “Do you think the curse will reach us?”

Aris rested an elbow on her knee and propped her chin on a curled fist, then flashed the woman a smile. “If your Kuvanian lords are right, it’s inevitable,” she said, mockingly gravely. A grumble sounded from the forest and Aris smiled at the shady spot where Morton was hiding.

Jorra stood with her small hands balled up into fists for a long while, staring at the flowers. Then she looked back up at Aris. “I don’t think what the Kuvanians say is true,” she finally admitted. “I don’t think using runes or manipulating the solvent is what’s causing Gates to open.”

“Very brave of you to admit that. In secret. Where no one but the village witch and your brother can hear you,” Aris said sarcastically.

“I do not admit it to others because I have no proof,” Jorra said. “But I want to find the reason. The real reason. You will help, right?”

This time a full volume snort came from the shadows. “She barely knows how to deal with the monsters,” Morton drawled out from his spot. “Turned almost as pale as an Unseeing when she had to get close to one. How in Part’s name is she going to help?”

Aris lifted her head to give the shadowy spot of the forest a cold look. Back when Reikna was overrun with monsters, she had Morton take her there with a handful of other villagers to try to save it. She was hidden most of the trip there, of course and she only let Morton see her out of Shade form. They had arrived too late and the villagers had all died or were consumed by the Unseeing.

She joined Morton to try to destroy the few Unseeing that remained there. They took down one together and the second dissolved on its own before they could attack it. She remembered this detail from Nilda and Rask’s stories, along with reports from Camaz regarding Gate incidents - for some reason, the Unseeing would disappear like that on their own. However, Morton had counted the dissolving as a win.

Their cooperation in Reikna did absolutely nothing to improve her reputation with the man. Morton still viewed her with utmost suspicion and their every meeting was separated by Jorra and a bow with an arrow notched into it. In fact, Morton almost seemed convinced that they no longer needed Aris since he was able to take down an Unseeing himself. Such a thick-headed moron.

“You’re right,” Aris said softly. “I can’t help you.”

She wanted to add how ludicrous it was that the two of them wanted to solve a puzzle that an entire empire struggled with for about a decade. That the most educated and brilliant minds at the Academy have tried to figure out the very question of why Gates were opening and have come up with nothing. The idea that two villagers who were barely able to read finding the answer was downright absurd. She didn’t say any of that solely because it would reveal too much of herself. Jorra and Morton of Gendis didn’t need to know anything more about her.

“You waste your time and kindness on this witch,” Morton said to his sister. He had wandered close enough into the sunlight that it glinted against the tip of his notched arrow. “Let’s be done here before people start wondering where we are. We need more pest repellent charms for the northern fields. If we’re to feed you, you should earn your share.”

The charms he was talking about were sticks with specific runes engraved that let out a certain scent that common pests in the area disliked. It’s a simple enchantment she picked up from an agricultural book at the Academy’s library, when she lurked around the less popular aisle to lure a librarian to help her get more interesting information. As stupid as they were, both Jorra and Morton could make these charms themselves but apparently they couldn’t be bothered to do that - they needed a witch to do their dirty rune work.

Without another word she took the bag Jorra packed for her and disappeared into Shade form. She watched the siblings make their way back to Gendis, pettily thinking of ways to make Morton trip and fall on his own arrows. Maybe it’ll skewer through his eyes and through his brain. She could also make a charm to burn their crops or maybe she could just… leave.

Aris gave a frustrated sigh and returned to where her house is to sit in the tree that overlooked Gendis. She ate the food given to her, one being a bun wrapped in paper, while she stared moodily at the distant activity of people living a normal life. She had left the Academy to come here to change something. Now that she was here, she simply wanted to leave again. What was wrong with her?

Unwittingly, she thought of Camaz. She didn’t want to think about Camaz. She didn’t want to even entertain the thought that what he said was true.